Enemies of All Humankind: Fictions of Legitimate Violence

by Sonja Schillings

Overview

Hostis humani generis, meaning “enemy of humankind,” is the legal basis by which Western societies have defined such criminals as pirates, torturers, or terrorists as beyond the pale of civilization. Sonja Schillings argues that the legal fiction designating certain persons or classes of persons as enemies of all humankind does more than characterize them as inherently hostile: it supplies a narrative basis for legitimating violence in the name of the state. The book draws attention to a century-old narrative pattern that not only underlies the legal category of enemies of the people, but more generally informs interpretations of imperial expansion, protest against structural oppression, and the transformation of institutions as “legitimate” interventions on behalf of civilized society. Schillings traces the Anglo-American interpretive history of the concept, which she sees as crucial to understanding US history, in particular with regard to the frontier, race relations, and the war on terror.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781512600179
Publisher:	Dartmouth College Press
Publication date:	12/06/2016
Series:	Re-Mapping the Transnational: A Dartmouth Series in American Studies
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	287
File size:	628 KB

About the Author

SONJA SCHILLINGS is a postdoctoral researcher and assistant graduate studies executive at Justus Liebig University, Giessen, Germany.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments • Introduction • PART 1: THE EMPEROR AND THE PIRATE: LEGITIMATE VIOLENCE AS A MODERN DILEMMA • Augustine of Hippo: The City of God • Charles Johnson: A General History of the Pyrates • Charles Ellms: The Pirates’ Own Book • PART 2: RACE, SPACE, AND THE FORMATION OF THE HOSTIS HUMANI GENERIS CONSTELLATION • Piratae and Praedones: The Racialization of Hostis Humani Generis • John Locke, William Blackstone, and the Invader in the State of Nature • Hostis Humani Generis and the American Historical Novel: James Fenimore Cooper’s The Deerslayer • PART 3: THE AMERICAN CIVILIZATION THESIS: INTERNALIZING THE OTHER • The Frontier Thesis as a Third Model of Civilization • The Democratic Frontiersman and the Totalitarian Leviathan • Free Agency and the Pure Woman Paradox • The Foundational Pirata in Richard Wright’s Native Son • PART 4: “IT IS UNDERNEATH US”: THE PLANETARY ZONE IN BETWEEN AS AN AMERICAN DILEMMA • The Institutional Frontier: A New Type of Criminal • Who Is Innocent? The Later Cold War Years • Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist and the War on Terror • Conclusion • Abbreviations • Notes • Works Cited • Index

What People are Saying About This

Klaus J. Milich

“Schillings’ reading of the hostis humani generis constellation in US literary, cultural, and legal texts is not only unique and groundbreaking; the study has all the potential to introduce the revived legal concept into American literary and cultural studies.”

Ingo Berensmeyer

“Schillings expands the discussion of legal and philosophical concepts in the current context of the 'war on terror' with greater historical depth than is usually found in such conversations, and she also makes a highly welcome contribution to the study of narrative fiction in such contexts.”

Greta Olson

“This is he best kind of legal-historical scholarship. . . . Schillings illuminates central concepts, such as that of legal fictions, and explains their usefulness in situations that are from a legal perspective inchoate."

Editorial Reviews

“With excellent mastery of her subject, [Schillings] critically analyses early modern formulations of civilizational discourse, as well as taking part in very recent discussions with scholars from varied backgrounds.”
—Review Journal for the Study of Culture


“Sonja Schillings’s impressive study will be fundamental for studying Western conceptions of and relations with violence, in American Studies and beyond.”
—Amerikastudien / American Studies

From the Publisher